Monday, July 11, 2011

Daily Links, July 11, 2011

misc103
A cluster of beetles gets out of the rain among the leaves of my neighbor's gourd plants.

Lotsa good stuff out there today.

SPECIAL: Don't miss Charles Snyder's excellent piece on the KMT's dark history.

BLOGS:
MEDIA:
  • A Philippines perspective on the Spratly/Paracel case. China to commence drilling soon....
  • Peter Lee with another one of his uniformly good pieces, this one on the F-16 pavane in which Ma pretends he wants F-16s and the Obama Administration pretends to think about his request.
  • Steven Walt citing a paper on Great Power Retrenchment:
    Faced with diminishing resources, great powers moderate their foreign policy ambitions and offer concessions in areas of lesser strategic value. Contrary to the pessimistic conclusions of critics, retrenchment neither requires aggression nor invites predation. Great powers are able to rebalance their commitments through compromise, rather than conflict. In these ways, states respond to penury the same way they do to plenty: they seek to adopt policies that maximize security given available means. Far from being a hazardous policy, retrenchment can be successful. States that retrench often regain their position in the hierarchy of great powers. Of the fifteen great powers that adopted retrenchment in response to acute relative decline, 40 percent managed to recover their ordinal rank. In contrast, none of the declining powers that failed to retrench recovered their relative position.
    It is not too late for the US to reimagine a future that is oriented on 21st century East Asia and future technology rather than on the 20th century Middle East and fossil fuels. Our leaders appear to lack that kind of imagination, however.
  • US, Japan, Australia conduct first joint exercise in South China Sea.
  • Jens Kastner on the Free Independent Tourists from China, with quotes from John Copper about how horrible the FITs are going to be for the DPP. Dream on, John. 
  • China's Fifth Generation leaders and their future Taiwan policy.
  • TVBS poll has Ma ahead of Tsai 44-36. Good luck figuring out what that means.
  • Taiwan divorce rates falling.
  • Taiwan textile makers move up the value chain.
  • Trade data show China economy is slowing.
  • Lai of MAC: One China = ROC, 1992 consensus rulz.
  • Malaysian students rally in Taiwan for democracy in their home country.
  • Night market hero debuts in China.
  • Job outlook for grads improving.
  • Chinese gov't paper calls for deployment of aircraft carrier to Senkakus, stern posture on Chinese expansion into the islands.
EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENTS:
  • 2011 Taiwan Oolong Study Tour Oct 16-23.
  • John and Fish, two of Taiwan's best bird photographers, are having a solo exhibition in Tainan this month to July 30, 2011. Ephemeral vs. Eternal John and Fish Digital Art Artyart Gallery 亞帝畫廊 No.99-8, Nan men RD, Tainan City, Taiwan 台南市南門路99-8號 Here's an example of their awesome, enjoyable work.
  • Backseat seatbelt law takes effect next month. I remember when we bought our van rear seatbelts were extra and the salespeople laughed at us for buying them. 
_______________________
  Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

17 comments:

OzSoapbox said...

Argh enough with the insect closeups! Seriously I'm starting to get the creeps every time I visit here...

Anonymous said...

Individual tourists won't any more transform the Chinese psyche than the thousands of thousands of Chinese yearly heading to the US/Europe/Japan... end of story.

It's not like the Chinese are idiots and remain autocratic because they don't know any better.

Okami said...

I was expecting better on the Gov. Perry bit. I know he's the current focus of the left's 2-minute hate, but compared to the previous ones against Bachman and Palin, they seem small in comparison.

Michael Turton said...

Perry's stupidity puts all of us overseas at risks and hands China even more ammo to use against the US.

Readin said...

What is going on in this country (the US?). Obama is starting to act like a moderate (willing to accept both spending cuts and tax increases to balance the budget) while the Republicans are becoming as extremist (no tax increases) as the Democrats (no spending cuts and not even a budget). Meanwhile the a Republican (Perry) is acting as like an idiot on foreign policy. Are they trying to confuse me?


Well, I'm sure it won't last long. In the next few days I'm sure Obama will do something to remind me why he's incompetent domestically and even worse than Perry on foreign policy.

Anonymous said...

Do you think the new seatbelt law has anything to do with Sun Yatsen's granddaughter dying in a car accident in Taipei recently?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Sun

Okami said...

Now this is interesting. If I asked you if China would use any excuse real or imagined to do whatever they wanted, you would give me a resounding yes.

So when Gov Perry, current target of the left's 2-minute hate campaign, allows a supposed Mexican national to be out to death for his crimes that he was convicted of in an open trial with multiple appeals, this allows China to use that as an excuse to put people to death or imprison on a whim of any nationality. China's excuse should then be taken seriously, despite even the Chinese not even taking it seriously outside of them doing what they were already going to do anyway.

Here's a better one, when the US Justice Dept, FBI, ATF and DEA allow thousands of guns to be bought through straw purchasers and walked into Mexico leading to the death of hundreds if not thousands of Mexicans and at least one American, we are met with resounding silence from the media and left along with obstruction from the US Justice dept headed by the guy who ran through the Marc Rich pardon.

*cough* Your ideology is showing.

Michael Turton said...

Here's a better one, when the US Justice Dept, FBI, ATF and DEA allow thousands of guns to be bought through straw purchasers and walked into Mexico leading to the death of hundreds if not thousands of Mexicans and at least one American, we are met with resounding silence from the media and left along with obstruction from the US Justice dept headed by the guy who ran through the Marc Rich pardon.

Maybe on Okami planet. On Earth, the gun flow to Mexico has been the subject of numerous articles progressive websites. Like zillions. You can find them with a two minute google search.

in an open trial with multiple appeals, this allows China to use that as an excuse to put people to death or imprison on a whim of any nationality.

Okami, your reading comprehension sucks. The issue I and China Hearsay have is that Perry has handed China another propaganda weapon against the US while breaking the law and threatening US citizens overseas whom governments can deny consular visits during arrest and point to this incident.

Do yourself a favor. Save the longer comments for FOARP's site, where no one will challenge your ignorance.

Michael

Readin said...

After writing my little rant about how things had changed to the point where Republicans had become just as extreme as the Democrats I realized something - that makes me a "moderate"!

Regarding the gun flow to Mexico...you know a wall that is a significant enough barrier that it deters nearly all illegal immigration will also be a significant barrier to gun smugglers and to the drug smugglers that cause the gun smuggling.

1 wall, three problems solved.

Readin said...

"SPECIAL: Don't miss Charles Snyder's excellent piece on the KMT's dark history."

Speaking of the KMT's dark history, "Formosa Betrayed" is available on Netflix.

Now if they can just get Cape No. 7...

Michael Turton said...

You can't build a wall that deters illegal immigration, Readin. They can always get through. The best way to deter illegal immigration would be to improve the economy on the Mexican side combined with tighter labor laws and controls on the US side, education of US consumers, and killing the environmentally destructive big agrobusiness that employs so many of them.

Anonymous said...

I agree that a) walls don't work against deterring migrants and that b) improving the quality of life of the poor in Mexico would deter migration (I would not phrase it as 'improving the Mexican economy' because I can imagine a scenario where the economy in Mexico improves, but the bulk of the benefits go to the upper and middle class, not the poor). However, I fail to see how killing big agribusiness would deter migration. I know that many (most?) small family owned organic farms employ Mexican workers. You would have to either find a way to grow fruits and vegetables with a lot less labor, or find another source of labor (for example, if most people in the USA grew a significant portion of their fruits and veggies themselves, the common citizen would become the labor).

-MK

Michael Turton said...

Yes, I know. Obviously many things would have to change.

Anonymous said...

Michael have you seen this article on Taiwan and F-16s? I agree, however, that missiles are cheaper and that the best defense against an aggressive China are a good offense to destroy that offensive capability: http://www.defensestudies.org/cds/the-case-for-f-16s-in-taiwan/

Also this: http://atlanticsentinel.com/2010/09/rethinking-american-commitment-to-taiwan/

And some older news on Taiwan's possible intermediate missile range capability, which the US is under treaty forbidden to use itself: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2011/04/28/300336/Taiwan-missile.htm

Readin said...

"You can't build a wall that deters illegal immigration, Readin. They can always get through."

So despite a large stone structure (surely if we can't do better we can at least replicate what the Chinese did half a millennium ago) heavily patrolled by armed soldiers along every stretch of the border, enough illegal immigrants will get through to make it worth the cost of the trip from their home country?

As Obama was once fond of saying, "If we can put a man on the moon, we can" build a wall capable of stopping an illegal immigrant.

You don't have to make it impossible to get through, just difficult enough that it isn't worth the trouble of trying.

When you've significantly reduced the numbers, you can start jailing people who get caught trying, thereby making fewer people want to try.

And when you've stopped nearly all illegal immigrants, you can get serious about security because you can assume anyone who is still trying is a smuggler, most likely of drugs or weapons, and you can take off the kids gloves.

And the part that liberals should love is that people like me will support amnesty. Reagan made a deal in the 80s where amnesty was granted an enforcement increased. When the government finally lives up to its obligations for the enforcement, then people will be more willing to give amnesty another try, especially with a real border guaranteeing we won't have another flood of illegal immigrants.

If we can't stop illegal immigrants at the border, we'll continue to live in a country with first and second class people where people resent newcomers, families fear the knock on the door and workers fear the workplace raid. Enforce the border is expensive, but cheaper than the alternative. Let's end the nightmare and make everyone in the US a free person.

Readin said...

CORRECTION: I meant to double-check that moon quote from Obama before using it but it slipped my mind. Well, I've gone googling and haven't found it. The closest I can find is this:

Pointing to President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon, Mr. Obama said: "I will set big goals for this country as president - some so large that the technology to reach them does not yet exist." at http://www.junauza.com/2008/11/12-barack-obama-quotes-on-technology.html

I'm sorry I included mis-information in a post.

Anonymous said...

Are those the beetles that have invaded northeastern US?